On Sunday May 2 to Wednesday May 5 the Augusta Margaret River Tourism Association is hosting the 1st MasterCard International Wine Tourism Conference, at the Leeuwin Estate Winery and various locations around the Margaret River region.
The theme for the conference is Building Innovative Partnerships and the aim of the conference is to, showcase the wine regions of the world; share key market intelligence about wine regions of the world; create a foundation for building a dynamic database and web presence for global wine tourism; and create an on and offline global wine tourism network.
Some of the key issues that will be addressed at the conference include how wine is tourism characterised and manifested?; why strengthen the links between the wine and tourism industries?; who is the wine tourist?; how can we get to know wine tourists better?; and how can we set quality service benchmarks across the wine regions of the world?.
Keynote speakers at the conference include the Federal Minister for Trade, the Honourable Mark Vaile; Tourism New Zealand chief executive officer George Hickton; International Wine Centre - Hong Kong, wine expert, Simon Tan; Pacific Asia Travel Association, vice president, Peter Semone; University of Stellenbosch Business School, professor, Stephanus Loubser; and Griffith University School of Tourism and Hotel Management, lecturer, Professor Beverley Sparks.
Registration for the conference can be made online at www.winetourism.com for $764.50 for all three days of the conference, for further information contact conference coordinator Mat Lewis on 9758 7388 or email mat@winetorism.com.